Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Start Time (Toronto EST)? : Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Tata Steel 2014

January 23, 2014

Round Nine (concluded)

The game Nakamura-Caruana did not continue on for almost ever – it was drawn with a perpetual on move 61.

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Nine
January 23, 2014
Hikaru Nakamura-Fabiano Caruana
E60 King’s Indian, King’s Knight Variation

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 c5 6. Nc3 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Qc7 8. b3 d5 9. Ndb5 Qa5 10. Bd2 dxc4 11. bxc4 Qd8 12. O-O a6 13. Na3 Nc6 14. Nc2 Be6 15. Rb1 Rc8 16. Ne3 Na5 17. Bxb7 Nxb7 18. Rxb7 Bh3 19. Re1 e6 20. Qc2 Qd4 21. Reb1 Rfd8 22. Be1 Ng4 23. Nxg4 Bxg4 24. Qa4 Bh3 25. Rd1 Qg4 26. f3 Rxd1 27. Nxd1 Qd4+ 28. Nf2 Bf8 29. Qd7 Qxd7 30. Rxd7 Bc5 31. Bb4 Bxb4 32. Nxh3 h6 33. Nf2 Bc5 34. Rd3 Bxf2+ 35. Kxf2 Rxc4 36. Ra3 Rc6 37. Ke3 Kf8 38. h4 h5 39. Kd4 Ke7 40. e4 Kd7 41. e5 Rb6 42. Ra5 Rc6 43. Ra4 Rb6 44. Ke4 Ke7 45. Kf4 Kf8 46. Ke4 Ke7 47. g4 hxg4 48. fxg4 Kf8 49. Ra5 Rb4+ 50. Kf3 Rb6 51. Kf4 Kg7 52. Ra4 Rc6 53. Ke4 Rb6 54. a3 Rb1 55. Rxa6 Rh1 56. a4 Rxh4 57. Kf4 Rh1 58. g5 Rf1+ 59. Kg4 Rg1+ 60. Kf4 Rf1+ 61. Kg4 Rg1+ 0.5-0.5

Then presumably the guys hailed a taxi and split the fare back to Amsterdam, the way they just split the point.

Standings

Aronian 7/9
Giri 5.5/9
Caruana 5.5/9
Dominguez 5.5/9
Karjakin 5.5/9
Harikrishna 5/9
So 5/9
Van Wely 4/9
Rapport 3.5/9
Nakamura 3.5/9
Gelfand 2.5/9
Naiditsch 1.5/9

The odds are that Aronian will win the tournament. He has done this thrice before – 2012, 2008 as the Corus and 2007 as Wijk.

Tomorrow is another rest day. This must be the most rested tournament ever. One would think that would favour the older competitors but looking at the standings above I suppose there is no direct correlation.

Today was supposed to showcase the Eindhoven High Tech Campus but, unless I missed something, we were not given a tour of the campus and the playing rooms could have been anywhere. What an immense amount of trouble to take the players there, to no effect.

Games resume on Saturday and finish on Sunday.
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Viewers’ comments from on-line forums

- A second outing at Wijk for the apparently unnamed opening 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bf4 . It's called "A45 Indian Defence" by the Wijk website, otherwise it gets called a "Queen Pawn" Opening.

In the same round, Rapport against Giri started 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4, also termed "A45 Indian Defence", although that's now regarded by authors as an alternative London System move order. The game continuation 2. .. c5 3. dxc5 Na6 is rather more characteristic of a reversed Reti.

Still it's instructive to see top GMs venturing into obscure areas of the openings spectrum.

Its even more instructive to see how a top GM deals with this obscure stuff, which some of us see all the time in league chess

- Aronian is looking more like a world champion, except of course that Carlsen is a massive obstacle to try to get past.
Before today's game, Aronian was half a point ahead of Karjakin, with others being further behind. And the two leaders were about to play each other, with Aronian as White.
He made absolutely sure that he was never going to lose the game, and he played ultra-solidly, happy to play out even the slightest edge for a win, but also fully satisfied with a steady draw, if the opponent plays accurately.

Over the last few years, Carlsen has shown many times that even super-grandmaster opponents will sometimes slip up under small but continuous pressure. Aronian has of course studied in depth Carlsen's play, and leant from Carlsen's psychology. Karjakin suddenly missed a tactic,and lost a pawn!

- Poor old Naiditsch. Must be a candidate for the worst ever game by a player rated 2700+.

- Levon is back in the saddle again

- Very excited to see how Aronian does against Anand, Kramnik, and Carlsen in a week.

- "Jobava is turning into a modern-day Mikhail Tal, winning with amazing sacrifices that computers don't like. But, as Boris Gelfand said earlier in the tournament, who cares about computers?"

- Lev Aronian looking to break his all-time peak live rating mark of 2829.7 with an amazing performance

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Start Time (Toronto EST)? : Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

3 more tournaments like Tata and Aronian will surpass Carlsen in rating (:

Live Chess Ratings:

1. Magnus Carlsen 2872 (+/- 0)
2. Levon Aronian 2828.4 (+16.4)
3. Fabiano Caruana 2787.3 (+5.3)

[Wayne Komer]

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Tata Steel 2014

January 24, 2014

Challengers’ Round Eleven

Results

Saric-Zhao 1-0
Yu-Muzychuk 1-0
Brunello-Wojtaszek 0-1
Bok-Van Delft 1-0
Timman-Jobava 0.5-0.5
Reinderman-Goudriaan 1-0
Troff-Duda 0-1

The Masters Section has a bye today.

In the Challengers, Jan Timman met Baadur Jobava. He had the upper hand through the game and then a winning endgame and then fatigue set in and he could only draw.

Tata Steel 2014 Challengers
Round Eleven
January 24, 2014
Jan Timman-Baadur Jobava
A56 Hromadka Defense, Loose Gambit

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. e4 O-O 6. Bd3 e6 7. e5 Ne8 8. Nf3 d6 9. Bg5 Qc7 10. Nb5 Qd7 11. dxe6 Qxe6 12. Be3 dxe5 13. Bxc5 e4 14. Ng5 Qe5 15. Nxe4 f5 16. Bxf8 Kxf8 17. O-O fxe4 18. Re1 Bf5 19. Bxe4 Bxe4 20. Nc3 Nf6 21. Nxe4 Nxe4 22. Qf3+ Qf5 23. Qxe4 Qxe4 24. Rxe4 Na6 25. Re2 Rc8 26. Rd1 Rxc4 27. Rd8+ Kf7 28. Rd7+ Kf6 29. g3 Rc7 30. Ree7 Rc1+ 31. Kg2 Bf8 32. Rxh7 Bc5 33. Rxb7 Rc2 34. Rhf7+ Ke5 35. a3 Bb6 36. b4 Nc7 37. Rb8 Nd5 38. Re8+ Kd6 39. Rf3 g5 40. h3 Ra2 41. Re4 Nc3 42. Re1 Nd5 43. h4 g4 44. Rf8 Ne3+ 45. Kg1 Nc4 46. Rf6+ Kd5 47. Rf5+ Kd6 48. Re4 Nb2 49. Rf6+ Kd5 50. Rxg4 Nd3 51. Rg5+ Ke4 52. Rgf5 Rxa3 53. Kg2 Ra2 54. h5 Be3 55. Rf7 Rb2 56. b5 Rc2 57. R5f6 Bd4 58. Re7+ Kd5 59. Rf5+ Kd6 60. Ref7 Ne5 61. R7f6+ Ke7 62. Rf4 Be3 63. R4f5 Bd4 64. Rf8 Ng4 65. R5f7+ Ke6 66. Rf4 Bc5 67. R8f7 Bd6 68. Rf3 Rb2 69. h6 Rxb5 70. Rg7 Nf6 71. g4 Be5 72. h7 Rb8 73. Rh3 Rh8 74. g5 Nd5 75. Rh6+ Kf5 76. Rg8 Ne7 77. Rxh8 Bxh8 78. f4 Kxf4 79. Re6 Nf5 80. g6 Kg5 0.5-0.5

Houdini says that 74. g5 should not have been played but 74. Rh6. We shall have to wait until Timman publishes the game in his chess column to see what his intentions were.

Ivan Saric won his game against Zhao Xue and now sits alone in first place.

Saric 8.5/11, Jobava 8/11 and Timman 7.5/11 with two rounds to go.

There is quite a nice chess shop set up at the tournament. Pictures of the books and chess sets accompany this article:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/tata-11...imman-forgives

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Nice to see one of my generation (Timman) doing quite well :)

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

The player selection for the Challenger section was an inspired one in my opinion - Timman remains a great player despite his age (in fact he was "the best of the West" in the '80s) while Jobava plays like nobody else at this level.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

It’s a pity that both Timman and Jobava can’t go forward to next year’s Masters. Also, Ivan Saric will have something to say about who takes the promotional spot.

Some comments on-line about Jan and Baadur and their game:

- The article (in CV) features a photo of Grandmaster Jobava. Baldness excluded, he is almost a perfect match of young World Champion M. Tal!

- I really had high hopes for Jan; it would have been an unexpected pleasure to see this 'Buddha of suburbia' back in the city centre next year. I've had the same experience a few times: completely outplaying a young upstart to find out he had just that extra bit of stamina from youth - like we did ourselves. I would be pretty sick - maybe his five years extra (and a tiny bit more talent) will give him the composure to take his last chance tomorrow. I feel a bit awkward doing this, but still I would say: Go, Jan, go!

- We need more Jobavas and Rapports in top 20 =)

- You think you bad? Joe Bava is baadur.

- Live game analysis had Timman up by 5.70 pawns at one point. I always thought a GM only needed a one pawn advantage to convert the win. Maybe I was wrong. That's a tough day to walk away with a draw after a huge advantage like that.

- (Olimpiu Urcan) The thing about Baadur Jobava’s games is that even when he’s seemingly lost, the play remains consistently rich and provocative.

- (After Round 6) Really enjoyed the commentary with Baadur Jobava joining Lawrence Trent. What a nice guy, besides being a strong chessplayer!

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Yet another truly brilliant game by Aronian (crushing Dominguez Perez's Ruy Lopez) who bumps his TPR at Tata to 2979! Levon is a perfect 4/4 with White and now 4/6 (2 wins and 4 draws) with Black. His live rating sits at 2832.6 and he's now within 39.4 points of Carslen. I posted earlier that Levon needed 3 more tournaments like Tata to catch Carlsen but I should amend that number to 2 since he's tacked on 20.6 FIDE points with this Tata performance.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Yet another truly brilliant game by Aronian (crushing Dominguez Perez's Ruy Lopez) who bumps his TPR at Tata to 2979!

That is good. Magnus will own those rating points and will hit 2900 LOL

Is Nakamura sick or in love? LOL

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Tata Steel 2014

Round Ten

January 25, 2014

Standings and Pairings

Masters

Giri (5.5)-Karjakin (5.5)
Dominguez (5.5)-Aronian (7)
Van Wely (4)-Gelfand (2.5)
Harikrishna (5)-So (5)
Caruana (5.5)-Naiditsch (1.5)
Rapport (3.5)-Nakamura (3.5)

Challengers (Round Twelve)

Zhao (4)-Duda (5.5)
Goudriaan (1)-Troff (4)
Jobava (8)-Reinderman (6)
Van Delft (2.5)-Timman (7.5)
Wojtaszek (6)-Bok (6)
Muzychuk (6.5)-Brunello (5.5)
Saric (8.5)-Yu (6)

The commentator is Ian Rogers. He is a retired Australian grandmaster who divides his time between Amsterdam and Australia. He does not have a strong accent.

The games begin with Garry Kasparov, a visitor, walking up and down watching the openings.

Rogers is quite a good commentator mixing analysis with anecdotes from a long experience with the game.

(Rogers on Gelfand) – In the last two years Boris had something to prove and has been performing well. About four years ago in Linares I was sitting down with Gelfand and sadly, with Gashimov as well. I was basically discussing age and how people can’t really play good chess after 40. Gelfand disagreed. He had just hit 40. And I said, “ Who was better, the Gelfand of the early 1990s, who was winning Candidate matches and Interzonals and playing fantastically exciting games or the modern Gelfand, who still had a good world ranking but didn’t seem to be as creative or successful as the old Boris Gelfand?” And Boris said, “I think that I am a better player now than I was then”. And then he set about proving it in the next few years. He won the Candidates Matches beating Grischuk in the final, he took Anand to a rapid game to decide the World Championship, and he tied for first in the Alekhine Memorial last year. He has had this amazing Indian Summer of results, so I kept thinking that he has proved it. The results of Gelfand over the last three years have been fantastic and maybe he hasn’t had anything in his career to match it. Maybe the law of averages has caught up to him. He has played this tournament like an over-40 player.

There have been a whole generation of players that came up in the 1980s – Anand, Ivanchuk and Kramnik was on the tail end of that group. They have dominated world chess since Kasparov retired in 2005. And even before the retirement, they were the chasing pack. Many of them became super-grandmasters It is only in the last few years that the Aronians and Carlsens have come up to displace the best of that generation. And Gelfand was among them and has managed to stay in the top ten quite convincingly – No. 8 at the start here but has dropped to No. 14 because of the poor results in this tournament. But here he has played like an old man. Gelfand is still enjoying the game and working very hard but as you get older you make a few more mistakes – senior moments. Of that generation, only Ivanchuk has the deep understanding of chess that Gelfand has. Gelfand could out-strategize almost any player – including Kasparov and Karpov at their peaks. The number of good positions that Gelfand had against Kasparov is very high. When Gelfand challenged Anand for the world title, it was about time.
++++++++

Kasparov is at Wijk and has given a press conference. He comes in to speak with Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam. The recording of the press conference will be posted on the Tata website later.

Kasparov won three Wijk tournaments in a row – 1999, 2000 and 2001.

(Kasparov) It is good to be back. No one who was playing then is playing today in the Masters. Actually to be precise – Van Wely is. There has been quite a significant shift in the players. I was happy to bump into Jan Timman. There was also Reinderman. He gave me a tough game once.

Dirk says he has a present for Garry.

Actually, there are two – the present issue of New in Chess as the magazine and the electronic version on an iPad. He gives him the iPad and Garry says, “I am afraid my daughter will confiscate that from me.” Dirk says that that is good, because now he will have two subscribers instead of one.
+++++++++++

Harikrishna-So has been drawn as has Giri-Karjakin. But all eyes are on Dominguez-Aronian, which Levon wins, also winning the tournament.

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Ten
January 25, 2014
Leinier Dominguez-Levon Aronian
C84 Closed Defense, Ruy Lopez

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. Nc3 d6 9. a3 Na5 10. Ba2 Be6 11. Bg5 c5 12. b4 Nc6 13. Nd5 Bxd5 14. exd5 Nd4 15. bxc5 Nxf3+ 16. Qxf3 dxc5 17. Rfe1 Nd7 18. Bd2 Bd6 19. a4 f5 20. Bb3 e4 21. dxe4 c4 22. Ba2 Qh4 23. e5 Bxe5 24. g3 Qg4 25. Qxg4 fxg4 26. c3 Bf6 27. Bb1 b4 28. Re3 Rad8 29. Bf5 h5 30. Rd1 b3 31. Bc1 Bg5 32. Be6+ Kh8 33. Re2 Bxc1 34. Rxc1 Nc5 35. a5 Rfe8 36. Kf1 g6 37. Rce1 Kg7 38. d6 Rxe6 39. Rxe6 Nxe6 40. Rxe6 Rd7 41. Re8 Rxd6 42. Ke2 Rd3 0-1

Aronian has let his beard grow as he kept winning. Does he shave it tonight or wait until the last game is over?

This is Levon’s fourth win at Wijk. He will go back to Berlin for a couple of days and then on to the Zurich tournament.

+++++++

In the Challengers, Saric has won again and leads, Timman has drawn against Van Delft and Jobava-Reinderman is still in progress, with Reinderman having a clear advantage.

++++++++

The Spanish journalist Leontxo Garcia comes in to join Ian Rogers and talk about the Bilbao Masters Final tournament in September. It seems that Carlsen and Anand have expressed interest in playing and, as a last year’s champion, Aronian will be there. Caruana will be invited but the other three places to be filled need some clarification. Also, the fact that the tournament is just two months before the World Championship is at the comfort limit for Carlsen’s participation.
++++++++++

Nakamura has beaten Rapport and Gelfand has beaten Van Wely. This is a big day for the black pieces.

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Ten
January 25, 2014
Richard Rapport-Hikaru Nakamura
A04 Reti, Zukertort

1. Nf3 c5 2. b3 d6 3. e3 e5 4. Bb5+ Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. d4 e4 7. d5 a6 8. Bf1 Ne7 9. Nd2 Bf5 10. Bb2 b5 11. h3 h5 12. a3 Nc8 13. a4 b4 14. Ne2 Nxd5 15. Ng3 Nxe3 16. Qe2 Nxc2+ 17. Kd1 Bg6 18. Ndxe4 Qe7 19. Qf3 Nxa1 20. Bc4 Nb6 21. Nf6+ gxf6 22. Bxf6 Qc7 23. Re1+ Kd7 24. Bxa1 Qc6 25. Qxc6+ Kxc6 26. Bxh8 h4 27. Nf1 Nxc4 28. bxc4 Bd3 29. Nd2 d5 30. cxd5+ Kxd5 31. Re5+ Kc6 32. Rh5 Bg6 0-1

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Ten
January 25, 2014
Loek Van Wely-Boris Gelfand
A45 Trompowsky

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. dxc5 Qa5 5. c3 Qxc5 6. Ngf3 Nc6 7. Bxf6 gxf6 8. e4 Be6 9. Bd3 O-O-O 10. Qe2 Bh6 11. Nb3 Qd6 12. O-O Ne5 13. Nxe5 Qxe5 14. Nd4 dxe4 15. Bxe4 Bd5 16. Qg4+ e6 17. Bxd5 Qxd5 18. Rfd1 Rhg8 19. Qh3 Bf4 20. g3 h5 21. Ne2 Bd2 22. Qh4 Qe5 23. Nd4 Bh6 24. Qh3 Kb8 25. Re1 Qg5 26. Re4 Rd5 27. Rh4 Rgd8 28. Rf1 Bf8 29. f4 Qh6 30. Kh1 Bc5 31. Nb3 Bb6 32. c4 Rd1 33. c5 Bc7 34. Rxh5 Rxf1+ 35. Kg2 Qg6 36. Kxf1 Qb1+ 37. Ke2 Qxb2+ 38. Kf3 Rd3+ 39. Kg4 f5+ 40. Kh4 Bd8+ 0-1

(to be concluded with next posting)

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Tata Steel 2014
Round Ten (Conclusion)

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Ten
January 25, 2014
Fabiano Caruana-Arkadij Naiditsch
A05 King's Indian Attack, Reti, Zukertort

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 g6 4. c4 dxc4 5. Na3 Bg7 6. Nxc4 c5 7. Nfe5 O-O 8. d3 Nd5 9. Qb3 e6 10. O-O Qc7 11. f4 Nd7 12. Bd2 b6 13. Nf3 Bb7 14. e4 Nb4 15. Bc3 b5 16. Bxg7 Kxg7 17. Qc3+ f6 18. Ncd2 Qd6 19. a3 Nc6 20. Nb3 Rac8 21. Rac1 Ne7 22. e5 Qb6 23. exf6+ Rxf6 24. Kh1 Nd5 25. Qd2 c4 26. dxc4 bxc4 27. Nbd4 Nc5 28. Rc2 Nd3 29. b3 Nb2 30. Ne5 c3 31. Qf2 Rd8 32. Re1 Nxf4 33. gxf4 Rxd4 34. Rxc3 Nd1 35. Rc7+ Kg8 36. Qc2 Rdxf4 37. Rxb7 Nf2+ 38. Kg1 Nh3+ 39. Kh1 Rf1+ 0-1
++++++++

I have looked in at the English Chess Forum to see what the guys think about the Tata today.

Colin Crouch says - It looks like Aronian is just about to beat Dominguez. If so, he will have scored 8/10, a higher percentage score than Carlsen's record-breaker last year. He looks at the moment to be on full level terms with Carlsen.

John McKenna replies - Agree with Colin's 'live' assessment of Aronian's current form, above.

And he says just now Caruana & Jobava both look like they are in a bit of trouble. Rapport could also be downed, all guns blazing, by Nakamura from the look of things a few mins ago.

Now it's time for curry & cuppa

And later:

Time for cup of coffee and a slice of date & walnut cake.
+++++++++++

It is supper time in England, lunch time in Toronto/Montreal.

Ian Rogers signs off for the day. He says tomorrow that the games start earlier and that the commentator will be Tex de Wit, the Dutch chessplayer.

There is a blog of Australian chess players online and one gives an account of meeting Tex to be shown around Amsterdam in 2011.
See:

http://figjamchess.blogspot.ca/2011/...dventures.html

An extract:

Max Euwe Museum and Library

I know what you must have been thinking up til now: What 19-year old male would go to Amsterdam and not visit the chess museum!? Well, luckily, one day I did manage to get there after not being able to find the entrance three times already. The 4th time came after I went to see Tex de Wit, whom I had met during the BDO. He had invited me around to his place to play blitz with himself and his friend. I told him about how I had tried to find the Max Euwe Museum and he said that I had to go in the building and press one of the numbers to be let upstairs, and then be taken in by the curator. It wasn't far from his place, and he liked the idea of going there, so we all went together anyway.

When we got there, the curator gave us a tour of the museum, however he only spoke in Dutch, so Tex had to translate for me. I saw lots of pictures of Max Euwe - as well as many other famous players whose faces I wouldn't previously have been able to identify - and learnt some interesting facts about his life. Max Euwe was only an amateur player when he became World Champion, which lasted from 1935-1937. He was also a mathematician, teacher and author. In fact he wrote around 70 chess books, much more than any other World Champion.

The museum also contained several other chess related things, including a timeline showing all the Dutch Grandmasters up to the present day - with 16-year-old Robin van Kampen about to be included - and an old specially-made Nazi chess set, with tanks, missiles, soldiers, etc. for pieces. (The white pieces were the bigger and more powerful weapons, as they were supposed to represent the Nazi army.)

After the tour of the museum, we were shown into the library, which had a collection over 10000 chess books inside. As there are so many different chess books, from opening, to endgame, to strategy, to biographies, etc., many keen chess players often come to this library to study. Also in this collection is one of the oldest surviving books on chess, 'The Bishop', by Ruy Lopez, dating back to the 1500s.

Blitz Tournament

A couple of days after visiting the Max Euwe Museum, Tex asked me if I wanted to come to his club to play in a blitz tournament on Thursday night at 8:00pm. By that stage I hadn't had any competitive chess (apart from the few games at his house) for almost two weeks, and so, eager to get my fix again, I replied with the affirmative. I left the house around 7:00, thinking that the two trams I'd need to take should get me there with 5 or 10 minutes to spare. However, I didn't account for the tram I was taking being 25 minutes late. Nor did I account for not being able to find the place when I got there. So when I finally found the place after 8:30, I was expecting to have already forfeited my first two games. But luckily for me they hadn't started yet.

The blitz was done as a 13 round all-play-all, with playing strength ranging from around 1700 to 2300. I've never really considered myself much of a blitz player, but for some reason today I was feeling pretty good. I got to 4/4, expecting I'd be playing Tex, who'd also been winning all his games. We both got to about 6/6 before he lost one game, but we still hadn't played each other. After several narrow escapes and lucky wins, I managed to get to 12/12, and I was paired with Tex (11/12) for the last round. After thinking for too long in the opening and then missing a nice exchange sacrifice he had, Tex beat me fairly comfortably, so 1st place was shared between us on 12/13.

Unfortunately the only prize for coming equal first in this blitz tournament, was the satisfaction of coming equal first in this blitz tournament.

[Tex is a stand-up comedian and the guys visit his comedy club later. This is quite an interesting blog and I hope it will be equally interesting to hear Tex commentating tomorrow]
++++++++

Viewers’ Comments

- Great chess from Aronian. He mentioned in the short interview after this round that he is spending more time than usual preparing before each game. It is definitely showing, as he is getting good positions in the early middlegame consistently (or at least positions where he has play, even if the computer prefers his opponent) and getting way ahead on the clock.

His performance here is roughly as good as Carlsen's last year, and with a win tomorrow against Van Wely (very possible) it could be one of the best ever. This year Tata is missing some of the stronger players of last year (Anand, Carlsen) but is also missing the lower rated players Ami, Sokolov, Hou, etc. Carlsen won last year with a 2930 performance, which Aronian is crushing with a 2984 one. Can't wait for Zurich, hopefully this is a "new" Aronian, one hungry for the title.

- Ian Rogers is by far the best commentator of all of them ... Thanks Ian

- I'd still like to see a Carlsen-Aronian WCC match in November, but winning the candidates tournament against 4 Russian players will prove extremely difficult, even for Levon Aronian.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

Tata Steel 2014

Round Eleven

January 26, 2014

Standings and Pairings

Masters

Naiditsch (2.5)-Rapport (3.5)
Gelfand (3.5)-Harikrishna (5.5)
Nakamura (4.5)-Giri (6)
Aronian (8)-Van Wely (4)
Karjakin (6)-Dominguez (5.5)
So (5.5)-Caruana (5.5)

Challengers (After Round Twelve)

Timman (8)-Wojtaszek (6.5)
Duda (6)-Goudriaan (2)
Bok (6.5)-Muzychuk (7.5)
Troff (4)-Jobava (8)
Brunello (5.5)-Saric (9.5)
Yu (6)-Zhao (4.5)
Reinderman (7)-Van Delft (3)

The commentators are FM Tex de Wit and GM Erwin L’Ami.

Everything has been decided – Aronian has won the Masters and Saric, the Challengers.

Erwin and Tex analyze for 45 minutes and then Ian Rogers joins Tex. The rule, Tex says, is that because he is a FIDE master, he must have an IGM with him.

So-Caruana is a dead draw and agreed to such just after the 30th. Naiditsch beats Rapport and Nakamura and Giri draw.

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Eleven
January 26, 2014
Arkadij Naiditsch-Richard Rapport
B07 Pirc Defense

1. e4 d6 2. d4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Nf3 c6 5. Be3 Qc7 6. Qd2 Nd7 7. O-O-O b5 8. e5 d5 9. h4 Qa5 10. h5 Nb6 11. hxg6 fxg6 12. a3 Rb8 13. Ne4 b4 14. Nc5 Nc4 15. Bxc4 dxc4 16. a4 c3 17. Qd3 cxb2+ 18. Kxb2 b3 19. c3 Qd8 20. Rxh7 Bf5 21. Qc4 Kf8 22. Ng5 Qd5 23. Qxd5 cxd5 24. Nce6+ Bxe6 25. Nxe6+ Kf7 26. Rxg7+ Kxe6 27. Rxg6+ Kf7 28. Ra6 Rb7 29. Ra1 Rh2 30. g3 e6 31. Ra3 Ne7 32. Rxb3 Rc7 33. Kc2 1-0

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Eleven
January 26, 2014
Hikaru Nakamura-Anish Giri
A30 Symmetrical Defense, English

1. c4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nb4 6. Bc4 Nd3+ 7. Ke2 Nf4+ 8. Kf1 Ne6 9. Ne5 Nc6 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Na4 Nd4 12. Nxc5 g6 13. Nb3 Be6 14. Bxe6 Nxe6 15. Qc2 Bg7 16. Qxc6+ Kf8 17. Qa6 Nd4 18. Nxd4 Bxd4 19. d3 Kg7 20. h4 h5 21. Rh3 Qd7 22. Rb1 Rhc8 23. Be3 Rc2 24. Qa5 Rb8 25. b3 Rbc8 26. Kg1 Re2 27. Bxd4+ Qxd4 28. Rf3 Rcc2 29. Rf1 Rxa2 30. Qb5 Qd6 31. Qe8 Qe6 32. Rc1 Rec2 33. Rxc2 Rxc2 34. d4 Rc1+ 35. Kh2 Rc8 36. Rxf7+ Qxf7 37. Qxc8 Qxf2 38. Qb7 Qxh4+ 39. Kg1 Qe1+ 0.5-0.5

A perpetual and Giri is undefeated in the tournament.

Aronian and Van Wely are in time trouble with Levon having less than 30 seconds to Loek’s 2.5 minutes. Lev plays 38.exf4 and after 38…Bd4+ Lev resigns!!

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Eleven
January 26, 2014
Levon Aronian-Loek Van Wely
A80 Dutch Defense

1. d4 f5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 d6 4. e3 h6 5. h3 g5 6. Bh2 Bg7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. c3 Nc6 9. Bd3 Rb8 10. O-O Qe8 11. Re1 Qh5 12. Qc2 g4 13. hxg4 Nxg4 14. Bb5 Kh8 15. Qb3 Nd8 16. Bg3 e5 17. dxe5 dxe5 18. Qb4 Ne6 19. Rad1 c5 20. Qb3 Nc7 21. Be2 Be6 22. Bc4 Bd7 23. Be2 f4 24. exf4 exf4 25. Bh4 Bc6 26. Be7 Rf7 27. Bc4 Nd5 28. Bh4 Rf5 29. Bd3 Rff8 30. Bb1 Rbe8 31. Rxe8 Rxe8 32. Ne4 Nde3 33. fxe3 Bxe4 34. Bxe4 Rxe4 35. Qxb7 Qg6 36. Rd8+ Kh7 37. Qd5 Re6 38. exf4 Bd4+ 0-1

What happened? Loek said he played aggressively and got a bad game, but Levon was getting into time trouble and then blundered and lost.
Did Aronian let down after having assured his winning the tournament yesterday?
++++++++++

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Eleven
January 26, 2014
Boris Gelfand-Pentala Harkrishna
A13 English , Agincourt, Kurajica Defense

1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 c6 6. Qc2 Be7 7. e3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 h6 9. Bh4 Nh5 10. Bxe7 Qxe7 11. O-O-O Nb6 12. h3 Be6 13. Nf3 O-O-O 14. Kb1 Kb8 15. Rc1 Nf6 16. Na4 Ne4 17. Bxe4 dxe4 18. Ne5 Nxa4 19. Qxa4 Rd5 20. Rc3 Rb5 21. Ra3 a5 22. Rc3 Rd8 23. Rhc1 Qb4 24. Qc2 Bd5 25. Qe2 f6 26. Nc4 Bxc4 27. Rxc4 Qe7 28. Rc5 Rxc5 29. Rxc5 Qc7 30. Qg4 b6 31. Rc4 Re8 32. d5 c5 33. Rxe4 Rd8 34. Qh5 Qd7 35. Re6 Qxd5 36. Qxd5 Rxd5 37. Kc2 Kc7 38. Re7+ Rd7 39. Rxd7+ Kxd7 40. a4 Kc6 41. Kc3 b5 42. axb5+ Kxb5 43. e4 g5 44. g3 h5 45. f4 gxf4 46. gxf4 c4 47. e5 1-0

Tata Steel 2014 Masters
Round Eleven
January 26, 2014
Sergei Karjakin-Leinier Dominguez
A04 Reti, Zukertort

1. Nf3 c5 2. e4 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7+ Qxd7 5. O-O Nf6 6. Qe2 Nc6 7. Rd1 Rc8 8. c3 e6 9. d4 cxd4 10. Nxd4 Be7 11. Nf3 Qc7 12. c4 a6 13. b3 Nxe4 14. Qxe4 Bf6 15. Nc3 Bxc3 16. Rb1 Bf6 17. Bb2 Bxb2 18. Rxb2 Rd8 19. Rbd2 h6 20. g4 Ne7 21. Qf4 O-O 22. Qg3 e5 23. Nh4 b5 24. cxb5 axb5 25. Nf5 Nxf5 26. gxf5 Qe7 27. Rd5 b4 28. Qg4 Qf6 29. Qxb4 Qxf5 30. Rxd6 Rxd6 31. Qxd6 Re8 32. Rd3 Re6 33. Qd8+ Kh7 34. Rg3 Qb1+ 35. Kg2 Qe4+ 36. Kg1 Qe1+ 37. Kg2 Qe4+ 38. Kg1 Rc6 39. Qd1 f5 40. b4 f4 41. b5 Rc2 42. Rb3 Re2 43. Kf1 Rxa2 44. f3 Qg6 45. Qd3 Qxd3+ 46. Rxd3 Rb2 47. Rd5 Rxh2 48. Rxe5 Rb2 49. Ke1 Rb3 50. Ke2 g5 51. Kd2 Rxf3 52. Kc2 Rf2+ 53. Kc3 Rf1 54. Kc2 Rf2+ 55. Kc3 Rf1 56. Kc2 Ra1 57. b6 Ra8 58. b7 Rb8 59. Rb5 Kg6 60. Kd3 Kf6 61. Ke4 Ke6 62. Rb6+ Kd7 63. Kf5 f3 64. Rxh6 f2 65. Rh1 Rxb7 66. Rf1 Kd6 67. Kxg5 Rf7 68. Kg4 Ke5 69. Kg3 Ke4 70. Rxf2 Rxf2 71. Kxf2 Ke5 0.5-0.5
++++++++++

Final Standings

Masters

1. Aronian 8/11; 2. Giri 6.5/11; 3. Karjakin 6.5/11; 4. Caruana 6.0/11; 5. Dominguez 6.0/11; 6. So 6.0/11; 7. Harikrishna 5.5/11; 8. Van Wely 5.0/11; 9. Nakamura 5.0/11; 10. Gelfand 4.5/11; 11. Rapport 3.5/11; 12. Naiditsch 3.5/11.

Challengers

1. Saric 10.0/13; 2. Timman 8.5/13; 3. Jobava 8.5/13; 4. Muzychuk 8.0/13; 5. Reinderman 8.0/13; 6. Bok 7.0/13; 7. Yu 7.0/13; 8. Duda 7.0/13; 9. Wojtaszek 7.0/13; 10. Brunello 6.0/13; 11. Troff 4.5/13; 12. Zhao 4.5/13; 13. Van Delft 3.0/13 and Goudriaan 2.0/13.
+++++++++

Aronian gained 13.7 rating points as a result of this win; Caruana lost 1.5, Nakamura lost 12.7, Karjakin won 7.3 and Gelfand lost 15.6 with their performances in this tournament.

On the EC Forum a headline was concocted for the last round:

Flying-chess ace Lev crash-lands safely, just a bruised ego, after double-Dutch dogfight!

Nakamura tweeted afterwards: Not a good tournament overall, but it could have been a lot worse. For now, I am thankful that I played well at the end. Off to Zurich!

++++++++++

I was expecting a lot more comedy with comedian/master Tex de Wit, but he did a good job considering there was little drama in the last round.

He had as one of his guests WGM Bianca Muhren, who is doing the spot interviews after the games. They are not compulsory. One lasts no more than 1.5 minutes. She wants to know what the players feel like during and after the game. The players are often rather aggressive if she mentions a computer line – Nakamura-Gelfand in Round Three being an example, where Gelfand dismissed the computer finding a winning line he had missed.

Bianca likes to interview Anish the most. He always smiles and is responsive.

(Tex) – I wanted to get your view on this. They often seem to be hard on themselves – I played like a fool today, I forgot my preparation. Is that all bluff or do you believe any of it – or is it image?

(Bianca) Sometimes it is the truth but I can’t believe it is always the truth. With Aronian he says something like I just looked at it briefly at home and didn’t know what to do so I followed my feeling..

(Tex) Listening to him, you feel that he wakes up, makes a nice omelette for himself, reads the newspaper, clicks through one game and then goes off to work but that is not how it is. Someone else makes an omelette while he studies, people come in with openings which he studies and then destroys everyone.

(Bianca) Always he is pretty relaxed. We had a trip to Eindhoven and it was two hours by bus. In the bus all the other players were sleeping or reading a book but Aronian was chatting to everyone who was up for conversation and he was going to play Karjakin that day.
+++++++

(Tex) I don’t know if the cameras showed it. Jobava, had such an interesting tournament, with win after win and then it went downhill. Today he made a quick draw with the American Troff* and they hugged. He was so happy.

(Bianca) Jobava played quite a serious tournament until one point and then when it was clear he would not win clear first, he sort of enjoyed life. I heard a rumour that he didn’t sleep for two nights and went sleepless and somewhat intoxicated to the game with Troff and made a draw. Jobava has a rating of 2710, 250 points higher than Troff but both were happy with the draw and the hug!
+++++++++

Congratulations to Ivan Šarić who won B group in superior style (10/13 without a single loss)!
He is a gifted young player still developing and should cross 2700 elo mark in a year or so.
______
* Kayden Troff, born 1998, is the former Under-14 World Youth Chess Champion (2012) – a native of Utah.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014

One of the ways of examining the games you have played critically is to write about them. Bobby Fischer did this over much of his free time after school when he was sixteen and the result was his first book, Bobby Fischer’s Games of Chess (1959).

Anish Giri (19) has been writing and analyzing too. His website has a collection of his articles.

The most recent

http://www.anishgiri.nl/html/eng/ani...icles_029.html

discusses Tata Steel Chess 2014.

He says among other things:

My preparation consisted of a good Christmas holidays in Japan and a short training session with my new trainer, experienced grandmaster Vladimir Tukmakov. In hindsight it all worked out and I was ready and full of ambitions right from the start of the event.

My pairing was such that I would have pretty much of the favourites towards the end and so I felt ready to have a good start and indeed, that goal was more or less accomplished.
….
You will be able read my extensive article about this tournament in upcoming number of New In Chess, in which I look at the tournament from a broader perspective, focusing on Aronian's great result and so forth.